UCLA takes on Temple in the Eagle Bank Bowl December 29th at RFK Stadium in the nation's capital. Who? What sport is this? UCLA-Temple? Must be basketball, right? Nope; wrong. It's football, and an interesting match-up at that.

Temple is coached by Al Golden, one of the rising stars in the football coaching profession. Golden's name has come up for a number of coaching vacancies, including UCLA a couple years ago when UCLA Alum Rick Neuheisel received the nod.

Golden has turned the football program at Temple into a winning one, building around solid defense and a very effective running attack. The Owls are no joke and will test UCLA's respected defense in the cold and windy darkness of old D.C.

The good news for the Owls is that UCLA's defense has been run on this season. The bad news is that the ability of UCLA opponents to run successfully against the Bruins' defense has diminished significantly as games have moved toward crunch time. This factor is significantly enhanced by the time both teams have had off which, in UCLA's case, has allowed senior middle linebacker Reggie Carter's knee to heal more, allowing the Bruins' defensive leader to get closer and closer to being able to play at 100% by game time.